Call Me Irresistible (Wynette, Texas #5)(117)

"Let's count it down, just like New Year's Eve," Zoey said brightly.

And so they did. Watching the computer screen. Counting backward. At exactly midnight, Kayla hit the refresh button, and they all started to call out the name of the winner, only to fall silent as they saw that it wasn't the butt-talented stripper at all, but . . .

"Meg Koranda?" A collective gasp went up, and then they all started talking at once.

"Meg won the contest?"

"Hit the button again, Kayla. That can't be right."

"Meg? How could it be Meg?"

But it was Meg, all right, and they couldn't have been more shocked.

They talked for an hour, trying to figure it out. Every one of them missed her. Shelby had always admired the way Meg could anticipate what each of the women golfers might want to drink on any particular day. Kayla missed the profit Meg's jewelry had brought in, along with Meg's quirky fashion sense and the fact that nobody else would touch Torie's castoffs. Zoey missed Meg's sense of humor as well as the gossip she generated. Torie and Lady Emma simply missed her.

Despite the trouble she'd caused, they all agreed Meg had fit perfectly into the town. It was Birdie Kittle, however, who'd turned into Meg's most outspoken advocate. "She could have had Haley arrested the way Ted wanted, but she stood up for her. Nobody else would have done that."

Haley had told her mother and Birdie's friends everything. "I'm going to keep seeing a counselor at school," she'd said. "I want to learn how to respect myself better so nothing like that ever happens again."



       
         
       
        

Haley was so honest about what she'd done and so ashamed of her actions that none of them had been able to stay angry with her for long.

Shelby, who'd switched from mojitos to Diet Pepsi, slipped out of her new pewter flats. "It took guts to face down everybody at the Roustabout the way Meg did. Even if nobody believed a word she said."

Torie snorted. "If we hadn't all been so depressed, we'd have fallen off our chairs laughing when she talked about how she controlled Ted, then dumped him, like she was some big man-eater."

"Meg has honor, and she has heart," Birdie said. "That's a rare combination. She was also the hardest-working maid I ever had."

"And the worst paid," Torie pointed out.

Birdie immediately got defensive. "You know I'm trying to make up for that. I sent a check in care of her parents, but I haven't heard a word."

Lady Emma looked worried. "None of us have. She should at least have kept her phone number so we could call her. I don't like the way she's disappeared."

Kayla gestured toward the computer screen. "She picked a heck of a way to resurface. This is a desperation move on her part. A last attempt to get Ted back."

Shelby tugged on the waistband of her too-tight jeans. "She must have borrowed the money from her parents."

Torie wasn't buying it. "Meg's too proud to do that. And she's not the kind of woman who'll chase after a man who won't commit."

"I don't believe Meg placed that bid," Zoey said. "I think her parents did it."

They pondered the idea. "You might be right," Birdie finally said. "What parents wouldn't want their daughter to end up with Ted?"

But Lady Emma's quick brain had taken a different path. "You're all wrong," she said firmly. "Meg didn't place that bid, and neither did her parents." She exchanged a long look with Torie.

"What?" Kayla said. "Tell us."

Torie set aside her third mojito. "Ted placed the bid in Meg's name. He wants her back, and this is how he's going to get her."

They all wanted to see his reaction, so the committee members spent the next half hour arguing about who would inform Ted that Meg had won the contest. Would he pretend shock or come clean about his ruse? Eventually Lady Emma pulled rank on them and announced that she would do it herself.

Ted returned to Wynette on a Sunday, and Lady Emma showed up at his house early Monday morning. She wasn't altogether surprised when he didn't answer the door, but it wasn't in her nature to be put off, so she parked her SUV, pulled a lavishly illustrated biography of Beatrix Potter from her tote, and prepared to wait him out. 

Less than half an hour later, the garage door opened. He took in the way she'd blocked both his truck and his Benz, then approached her car. He was wearing a business suit and aviator sunglasses, and carrying a laptop in a black leather case. He leaned down to address her through the open window. "Move."